Your fears come true as you face your final moments...
Your fears come true as you face your final moments...
Theme Park | Amsterdam Dungeon |
---|---|
Type | Rollercoaster |
Audience | Older Families and Thrillseekers |
Opened | 16 October 2005 |
Closed | 5 January 2014 |
Manufacturer | Mack Rides |
Model | e-Motion Coaster |
Height | 23 ft |
Length | 263 ft |
Inversions | 0 |
Max Speed | 16 mph |
Duration | 1¾ minutes |
Reaper: Drop Ride to Doom was a small indoor rollercoaster at Amsterdam Dungeon which acted as the attraction's finale from its opening in 2005 until early 2014 when the ride was retired.
The rollercoaster was a Mack Rides E-Motion Coaster. Similar to a wild mouse, the coaster's car sat on springs which would cause them to "bounce" as they tilted into corners. In reality, this feature didn't really add much apart from the slight feeling of sitting inside a wobbly supermarket trolley.
Sadly, partly due to its small size, Reaper was not actually very good and provided a rather anticlimatic finale to the Dungeons shows. The track was fitted inside part of a real 13th century church building that forms part of the Amsterdam Dungeon's site. It stood at only 7 metres high and was only 80 metres long, with much of it taking place in the dark in an attempt to make it feel larger. To help extend the duration, multiple block brake sections were incorporated which just made the coaster feel even slower than its quoted 16mph top speed.
The rollercoaster began with a vertical elevator lift, which was arguably one of the best parts of the whole experience. The car then rolled slowly forward onto a block brake where it was held for several seconds before moving onto a turntable section. From here, the church's organ could be briefly seen lit up until the car was rotated around to face the main drop.
Again, the car was held here for some time while sound effects played and a voice could be heard proclaiming "Your miserable life is over: finished!". Rather undramatically the car then moved forward and over the mediocre main drop, which was both extremely short and featured trim brakes which made it even less exciting. Running around a left hand turn the coaster quickly reached the final brakes, leaving many visitors underwhelmed and wondering whether that was really it. Unfortunately, it was.
It is often sad to hear about the closing of a rollercoaster, but the removal of the lack-lustre Reaper: Drop Ride to Doom really was not much of a loss for the Amsterdam Dungeon.